It's been tough for Daniela Hantuchova in the past few months as she's struggled with multiple injuries (mainly a stress fracture) that caused her to miss over 2 months of activity, but not just any months. With the whole clay court season, the French Open and the Wimbledon tune-up events out of the picture, Daniela was going to endure a severe hit to her ranking (currently #12) and perhaps even more important was Wimbledon.
Even if you discount that Daniela's natural game fits well with grass, it's difficult to imagine doing well with so little preparation (unless you are the Williams sisters of course but that's a whole other subject) and that is exactly what Daniela was up against in today's opening match as she faced Italian Sara Errani who in many ways was a good opponent for the match.
Daniela was up against the #57 ranked player who is not a grass specialist and who had enjoyed a few good wins on clay. But on grass, Daniela had a fair shot and so she took it.
Despite having a few ups and downs (understandable given how she'd been out for so long), Daniela was able to fight through it all and come up with a big 7-6, 6-4 win!! Again, her next match is a fairly good draw as she will face Alisa Kleybanova, who is beatable...! Daniela will need to play a bit better but you'd think even getting one win will help in so many ways!
Best of luck Daniela!!
# posted by Pierre : 7:54 PM
